Last month’s noseweek might have left you thinking Discovery has cornered the market in crap medical aid service. Not quite. In fact, the market is fiercely contested. Discovery is not the only medical aid that makes you sick. Momentum Health certainly had no idea how to deal with their member, Martin Horn, who paid his premiums by debit order and yet his cover was suspended under the pretext that he owed them money.

Momentum have done the same thing to me on a few occasions some time ago. I have been with NMP since 1976 and when I found myself with Momentum after their takeover of NMP, we had similar situations. Debit orders were paid from our bank account and we assumed the account to have been fully paid up. However, the money had not made its way into Momentum's account by the time they deemed us to be "in arrears" and this was never rectified within a few days, but only showed in the next calendar month. For the record, Momentum's offerings to their clients seem to become ever less paltry. Two years ago I was paying under R1000 for my hospital plan. I have not changed my plan at all but every year I am informed by Momentum of their ever decreasing benefits under this plan, yet my monthly subscriptions have increased to over R1400. Have health costs outstripped inflation by this much?

While every reasonable effort is taken to ensure the accuracy and soundness of the contents of this publication, neither the authors nor the publishers of this website bear any responsibility for the consequences of any actions based on the information contained therein.